Thoughts of Dreamers
by noblecrescent
Summary: *One shot*. During a sleepless night, thoughts and plans of the future are discussed in a world where they don't seem possible anymore, at least not the way they had originally intended.


**Author's Note:** Hello! So I've had this little scenario playing in my head and I decided to finally write it down. This is set during Deathly Hallows, probably around the beginning. Feel free to leave thoughts or comments afterwards, thanks!

* * *

A young, sixteen year old girl turned and turned in her bed, her hands gripping the blankets around her. Her shut eyes seemed to screw even more shut as the seconds passed by. Eventually, she woke with a deep gasp and found herself sitting upright in the bedroom she'd been given six months ago. As her breathing evened out from her terrible nightmare, reality set in. Eyes swept the dark room and she shuddered. She hated the place and the people in it...save for one person of course. Though he probably wouldn't get to hear it.

She was quick to decide that sleeping alone and risking another nightmare was simply not an option. But, the creaks of the manor didn't help make reality nicer than her nightmare. She was scared, properly scared. Without thinking, she got out of bed and hurried to the door. She opened it as quiet as possible and poked her head into the hallway. It was dark but she could definitely hear footsteps from a distance.

 _They're probably having secret meetings and whatnot,_ she thought. Despite being forced to live with Voldemort and his Death Eaters - among them being her parents - they always managed to scare her. She swallowed hard and stepped out of her bedroom, making sure to close the door behind her. She doubted that anyone would come in to check on her. Her grandparents would have, but the two people claiming to be her parents never did.

She made her way down the hallway on high alert in case anyone passed by. She didn't feel like explaining herself to anyone at this hour. _Then maybe you should go back to your own room!_ a mean voice told her. She should have, she knew she should have, but her feet kept moving. She didn't want to be alone.

She came to a stop in front of a door and lightly knocked on it. "Draco, are you awake?" she whispered before coming in. The part of evading adults was still a high priority for her.

Fortunately for her, Draco was indeed awake. In fact, he was still wearing his day clothes indicating he'd not even slept a bit. At her sudden appearance, he sat up. "Romina, what are you doing here?"

Romina suddenly realized what she'd done. _You should have gone back to bed!_ she told herself. "I-I couldn't sleep so I...I just came here..." she ran a hand through her black curls. "But now I'm seeing that was a mistake, so I'll just go..."

"No, Rom, stay," Draco called after her, stopping her midway for the door.

He was genuinely surprised that she'd willingly come into his room and he wasn't going to complain about it. After their awkward breakup last year, he assumed that the last thing Romina would ever do was direct a word to him. That was _before_ Voldemort came in and took over a good part of their world. Now Death Eaters were invading his home, along with Voldemort himself on occasions, but at least it had created a way to see Romina outside of Hogwarts as well. Romina's parents had forced her to stay with them in Malfoy Manor ever since the school year started. She was distraught to leave her grandparents behind and heavily terrified of what laid in the manor, but she'd found a safe haven with Draco.

Romina shyly approached the bed, and at Draco's motion she took the spot beside him. "You weren't sleeping either," she said quietly. It was best for them to keep their voices down lest they want to have visitors.

"Couldn't," Draco shrugged. He let himself fall flat on his back and stared up at the ceiling.

Romina knew there was so much going through his head yet he would probably never tell her about them. "Did you have a bad dream too?"

"Something like that. You?"

"Same old, same old: destruction, murders..." Romina sighed and laid down on her side to face him, "Though at this point I don't know what's worse: my nightmares or reality."

"I thought you used to dream of - what was it?" Draco thought for a moment. "Oh, that stupid muggle musical-"

"Hey," Romina frowned at him.

"Sorry," Draco went after, like an instinct. He glanced at her then, meeting her dark eyes that had lost their joyful glint. "You used to have nice dreams..." he spoke softly, though Romina detected guilt in those words like it was his fault that their world was crashing over them. Neither knew what had really happened, of course, when their previous headmaster died. So, to Draco, it still felt like he was responsible for letting their world turn into darkness.

"So did you," Romina countered. "They were probably some stupid boy dreams but nice. Everything's just changed and we can't do anything about it."

Draco didn't say anything and so silence ensued. Romina swallowed hard and pushed herself to speak again.

"Do you...remember what your plans for the future were?" she asked. "Before any of this happened."

"Of course," Draco said instantly, sneaking another glance of her. His face warmed but with the darkness in the room Romina couldn't tell. "I would have liked so many things, but..."

Romina knew how that sentence finished because it was the same reasoning she now had. "I would've liked a lot of things too. I used to want to work in the Muggle areas but at the rate we're going there's not going to be many left."

"You and I, we're going to be okay, though," Draco said, and both knew that it was technically true. Their pure-blood status protected them no matter what.

"We haven't been 'okay' in about a year and a half," Romina softly pointed out. There, Draco could not argue. Feeding on that last bit of courage, Romina went on to say, "If we hadn't broken up...would you still have wanted to keep our plans?"

Draco shifted on his side to face her as well. "Without a doubt."

Romina was quick to smile. "Even the part where you stayed with me in a muggle neighborhood?"

"You said it would only be for a bit," Draco playfully warned her, earning a small chuckle from her. He smiled, mentally calculating the last time he'd heard one of her laughs. Results: far too long.

"What if I lied?" Romina challenged.

"Did you?"

"No. Everything that we planned for I wanted," Romina had become serious again. She nervously reached for his closest hand and took it. "I wanted to finish school with you, support whatever career you wanted. I wanted to show you more of the muggle world, see you try to figure out how to use a telephone..."

"I would have figured it out quick," Draco to put some humor into their conversation, but his heart was basically drumming in his chest.

"No you wouldn't have," Romina giggled. "It took Ron months to do so and he has more contact with muggles than you!"

"Rom..." Draco didn't have words to say that would describe how he felt at the moment. There he was, laying on the same bed with his ex-girlfriend who was now bordering the 'girlfriend' term again, while they had Death Eaters (and maybe even Voldemort himself) just downstairs.

Romina acted on one more bravery whim and scooted closer to him. "I miss you, Draco. I didn't understand why you broke up with me before...but now that I do...I declare you an idiot. An idiot but _my_ idiot."

Draco wrapped an arm around her waist, letting her settle her head on his chest. "I miss you too, Rom. I had no idea what was going to happen..."

"I know," Romina said quietly. "But...we're here together, and it might not seem much but right now it's probably the happiest and peaceful moment in such a long time."

"It does," Draco agreed, and suddenly dreaded morning where she would have to inevitably leave his room. The mere thought made his arm around her waist tighten. "You're right...I probably would have taken longer than Weasley to figure out a telephone."

Romina's eyes drifted upwards, her lips curling into a smile. "Yeah, that's why our children would make fun of you." As soon as she'd said those words, her face warmed, but she'd meant to say them.

Draco's pale face went red quick. "Children?"

Romina bit her lip but held his stunned look. "We talked about it once, remember?"

"Well, yeah, but...we were fifteen...and _joking_!"

"So you didn't imagine it happening...?"

"Well..." Draco would be lying of course, it just didn't mean it was easy to talk about it. "I-I would've liked...I mean...with _you_..."

Romina's lips stretched into a smirk. "And only me?"

"And only you."

"What would you have wanted? Boy or girl?"

But Draco wanted to get back at her for startling him with the topic and so he answered, "Twins."

Romina's eyes had widened for a moment. "Tw-twins? Oh...oh no thank you! I have seen that - _we_ have seen how twins are! No thanks!"

Draco had himself a good laughter. "Alright, alright. But, being honest? I would still have liked a boy and a girl."

"Me too," Romina smiled thoughtfully. "Although I have to say that the idea of a mini-you discourages the boy..."

" _Hey_!"

Romina snickered. "C'mon, you were awful. Our little boy would have to have different ideas."

"...yeah...alright..." Draco would have liked a different sort of childhood where there wasn't as much pressure as he had often felt growing up. Besides, with Romina, he couldn't see that happening anyways. She would have instilled very different beliefs in their child. "But you as a mother would have made the entire difference."

"I would like to think so..."

"But you know what I would like the most?"

"What?"

Draco loosened his grip around Romina so that he could better see her curious face. "I would've liked to marry you."

Romina's eyebrows rose upwards, and a small smile started spreading across her face. "Really?" she reached to touch his face.

"Yeah," Draco was sure that if there was light Romina would've seen his terribly reddened face.

Romina felt a wave of emotions hit her and, without thinking, she pressed a small kiss to his lips. She didn't regret it. Albeit surprised, Draco soon started smiling like an idiot (much like Romina thought he used to). Romina chuckled and nuzzled up against him. For that night, their thoughts and plans were on the table again. They could dream about where they would live in the future, what jobs they would like to take up, how many children they wanted, and so much more. But, in the end, they both knew they were only thoughts of 'what if'.

They were thoughts of dreamers.


End file.
